Cinderella Rangers Struggle to Make It to the Ball

(Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

The New York Rangers roller-coaster regular season is ending with an up-and-down stretch run and whether that make it into the playoffs may come down to their final game. Cinderella needs a lift in order to get to the ball.

The Rangers became a Cinderella team after the NHL Trade Deadline, when they finally ended their longest skid in decades to go on a couple of three-game winning streaks.

Rangers GM Glen Sather waved his wand, turned coach Tom Renney into John Tortorella, turned Nik Antropov from a Maple Leaf into a Ranger, and turned Derek Morris and Sean Avery from Coyotes and the Wolf Pack into Rangers, too.

Antropov was scoring a goal every third game for the Leafs, but he turned into a guy who scores at least every other game for the Rangers. Avery was a third-line agitator but turned into a first-line scorer.

The rest of the Rangers were awakened from a long, mid-season slump, and re-energized. Too bad Jaromir Jagr and Martin Straka disappeared.

Cinderella's ride down the stretch run was not smooth. Last night, New York broke out of a 1-3-1 skid to win at home for the seventh time in eight games.

In 80 games this year, the Rangers have 41 wins and 91 points. New York will likely need at least one win and two points in their last pair of games against the Philadelphia Flyers in order to make it into the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Rangers are now two points up on ninth-place Florida, which lost 2-1 in Philadelphia on Tuesday night. That means Cinderella can officially clinch an invitation to the playoffs with a win over the Flyers on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden.

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